All posts in Chiropractic

The hands on approach to healing uses touch to assist in the relief of pain as well as to alleviate the symptoms and causes of many conditions and illnesses. This age old approach to healing has been used for centuries and encompasses many different disciplines and techniques. Although some have changed in scope and technique, modern science has discovered that touch does in fact provide a medically viable treatment for many conditions.

Reiki

A Reiki Practitioner is trained in sensing changes to body heat throughout your body. By positioning their hands in different areas of your body they can detect changes in heat and identify areas in need of attention. Reiki helps to clear blocks in your body’s energy field and is a very relaxing process performed on a massage table. Reiki can actually be performed in a hands off approach as well but the healing powers of touch improve the outcome of Reiki. Reiki can alleviate emotional stress as well as old wounds and trauma by opening up the flow of energy and encouraging your body to follow its natural impulses to heal itself. We all could use a little healing now and then and Reiki “tune-ups” are perfect to keep your body balanced.

Chiropractic

Chiropractic treatments focus on your nervous system to identify issues. Your chiropractor looks for subluxations in the spine by examining surrounding tissue, muscle and ligaments. Subluxations will cause improper communication throughout the nervous system. Chiropractic adjustments help to realign the spine and clear your body of subluxations allowing for proper communication between your nervous system and other parts of your body. A series of tests will allow your Chiropractor to discover what treatments will work best to improve range of motion, alleviate back pain and improve mobility. It is often used for sports injuries, rehabilitation from motor vehicle or work related injuries as well as to alleviate pressure and discomfort during pregnancy. Lower and upper back pain are common complaints addressed by your Chiropractor which means you can find relief for your aching back. Treatment plans usually require several appointments to achieve success and improvements can often be seen following your first appointment.

Massage Therapy

Massage therapy applies pressure and manipulation to soft tissue, muscles, ligaments and joints to alleviate pain and improve physical function. It can be used for rehabilitative purposes following injury as well as to relieve stress or pain resulting from continuous use of certain muscles. There are many different techniques of massage therapy including:

Hydrotherapy

Deep Tissue Massage

Myofascial Therapy (connective tissue)

Trigger Point Therapy

Rhythmic Mobilizations

Remedial Exercise

Stress relief, anxiety and depression

The healing art of touch can be combined to provide a more complete treatment plan. Often your chiropractor will recommend their treatment be combined with massage therapy and vice versa. Reiki can complement any health care regime and add to the success of many health care treatments.

Back pain, neck pain and shoulder pain are all incredibly common- particularly for those who spend most of their day sitting. While it may seem that you’re more likely to sustain an injury during rigorous activity, the truth is that sitting for extended periods of time produces chronic pain and limits range of motion for many people. There are plenty of ways not to sit. Here are some of the worst- and the most common.

1. Still. Yes that’s right! One of the worst ways to sit is to sit still for hours on end. This causes muscles to stiffen or atrophy from lack of use, slows circulation and can make your energy dip. It’s also easier to feel bored, lethargic and chilly. So take regular breaks to stand, stretch and move around- this will help you feel alert and give your muscles some much-needed action. Do you ever notice that when you’re driving for a long time you don’t feel the stiffness until you finally step out of the car? The same can be true of your desk chair- so get out of your seat regularly, and test out your legs, neck and back.

2. Hunched over a device. We are particularly negligent when it comes to our devices, because we often lose track of how much time we spend on them. While you may not be aware of how often you’re tilting your head downward to text, type, check email or work on a tablet –it adds up. In fact there’s even a term for it: text neck. When you extend your neck forward on a regular basis or for extended periods of time (or both) it can lead to muscle soreness, strain, pinched nerves and herniated discs. You may experience more than a stiff neck –tense, sore shoulders, headaches and even jaw pain are also common results of “device posture.” Save your emailing and extensive work for your desk, or invest in a proper iPad stand.

3. In the wrong seat. Your chair dictates your sitting position- and has everything to do with your comfort while seated. If your chair isn’t the right height, you’ll notice you have to extend your forearms downward or upward to type. The resulting pain will either shoot up to your shoulder blades or sit in your wrists. If your chair doesn’t have your sightline level with your monitor, prepare for a sore neck from craning even at the slightest angle. And lumbar support? It’s critical. Make sure your lower back is properly cushioned to avoid slouching, slumping or twisting around in your seat. These positions can cause pain in your hips and middle back.

Migraines can be a debilitating health problem, triggered by a variety of factors from sleep habits, to diet, to the weather. Many sufferers claim they seem to become more prone to migraines at certain times of year –during the changing seasons, or in the spring and summer when they may also be plagued with seasonal allergies.

The frustrating thing about migraine sufferers is that many don’t take the time to seriously consider all of their options for prevention and symptom relief. It’s definitely worthwhile to explore natural therapies as a means of better understanding, minimizing, and preventing your migraines, not to mention nixing the dependency on potentially harmful medications often used to manage symptoms. Here are just some of the therapies that migraine sufferers frequently respond to.

Chiropractic care
Many headaches and migraines start in your spine. When your body is misaligned your nerves get very irritated, and communicate quickly with your brain. For some clients, spinal adjustments are an effective way to reduce the pressure on those unhappy nerves. Chiropractic care also helps restore mobility to patients who experience consistent and debilitating muscle tension. Blood flow to and from the brain may also be restricted when muscles are tight in the base of the skull, which can contribute to headache and migraine symptoms. The cumulative effects of rigidity and restriction can lead to severe headaches – so it’s important to target the problem at its source, rather than just treating the resulting migraine. Consider your posture, alignment, and date of your last adjustment. Could a poorly aligned spine, stressed nerves or strained muscles be an underlying cause of your migraine? A chiropractic consultation can help you find out!

Massage Therapy
Seeing a massage therapist isn’t a luxury- for many it’s a highly effective treatment option. Headaches frequently result from tension and stress, which are manually targeted during a massage session. Your therapist will also help to improve circulation throughout your body, which can draw blood away from the head, reducing pressure that contributes to headache. It’s also incredible to see the effects of loosening and treating muscle tissue. If you have a muscle injury, chances are you’ve been carrying yourself differently. An adjusted or irregular posture of any kind can cause soreness, stiffness, dizziness and headaches. So give massage therapy a try –the combination of targeted manual therapy and the valuable opportunity to reduce stress might be just what you need to manage or minimize migraines.

Naturopathic and Nutritional Counselling
Food sensitivity and allergies might also be causing your migraines. A holistic health practitioner can help you begin an elimination diet or food diary to uncover patterns in your eating that might cause headaches. Many sufferers of migraines know which foods they need to avoid in order to help prevent a killer headache. Don’t worry- this isn’t arbitrary. A nutritionist or ND can help you identify which ingredients are giving you grief- whether it’s a popular additive like MSG, or a less widely identified substance like tyramine. Tyramine, which is found in aged cheese, processed meat, canned soups and several other foods, has been known to trigger migraines in certain individuals. Without some health counselling however, you might never identify something like this as a potential source of your suffering. It’s worth looking into- The sooner you know your problem foods, the sooner you can begin adjusting your diet and lifestyle so you can enjoy more long-term management of your migraines.

We were recently invited to share this awesome infographic about back pain (scroll to the bottom of the article to see). It highlights many common lifestyle factors that contribute to poor posture and chronic pain. The graphic speaks for itself, but we thought we’d just reiterate some of the considerations presented.

The importance of standing posture: While we’re often reminded of the importance of sitting up straight and applying ergonomic principles to our workspace, it’s also vital that we stay mindful of our standing posture too. What’s your “go-to” stance? Do you tend to stand with one hip cocked to the side? Do you cross one foot over the other, or balance your weight unevenly? These seemingly insignificant physical adjustments can cause accumulated damage over time.

The costs of a poorly aligned spine: The cost of investing in care for your spine is nothing compared to the financial and physical toll of living with spinal degeneration, misalignment and chronic pain. We’re major advocates for investing in your health in the preventative, maintenance phase –rather than seeking treatment when you’re desperate for relief. By investing in your health while you’re young and relatively healthy, you may offset damage that accumulates over your lifetime as a result of injury or aging.

Staggering statistics: Although these are American stats, when 80% of the population is experiencing pain, there’s a problem! It’s true that back pain is one of the most pervasive and persistent health symptoms experienced in our society. Part of the problem is in thinking that your back pain isn’t severe enough to warrant attention. If you have a consistently sore neck and upper back, you may not classify yourself as someone with “back problems.” But pain, stiffness, and a reduced range of motion are always deserving of attention and treatment.

Have a look at the infographic: What postures and habits do you feel need improvement in your life?

When we champion chiropractic care, we consistently mention the central nervous system. For many new patients, this might not mean much (or make any sense). Many people associate chiropractic with bones, rather than nerves, joints, muscles and the brain. We encourage you to learn the basics about the central nervous system, and how it functions to keep our bodies running optimally.

Why is the Central Nervous System Important?

We liked the way this article from Natural News describes the central nervous system’s critical role in the human body’s everyday participation in a fight for survival. Your body is working each day to confront a barrage of assaults –free radical damage to your cells, environmental stressors, chemically reactive molecules, and other toxins. The body’s incredible ability to communicate within itself, protect itself, and heal itself keeps us healthy and thriving in spite of these everyday onslaughts of harmful contaminants. The central nervous system is like a governing body that controls all of the channels by which that healing occurs.

Body-to-Brain Communication

As Natural News points out, the movement of energy from your brain to your nerve systems is fueled by information collected from receptors throughout your body. The brain relies on a process called “proprioception” –the effective movement of information from those receptors in your muscles or joints all the way to your brain. As you can imagine, we want to pave the way for a fast and healthy flow of information.

But this brain-body information exchange can be compromised by nerve stress caused by misalignment and trauma. The accumulation of damage resulting from poor posture, minor injuries and an unhealthy lifestyle can all affect your nerves and stress hormones. As a result, there’s a slight breakdown in communication between your receptors and your brain, and your body’s healing time slows down.

Enter chiropractic.

A chiropractor’s aim is to restore your central nervous system so that your body is well-tuned to keep healing itself effectually. By re-aligning the spine and reducing nerve pressure, chiropractic care plays a useful role in decreasing your body’s stress. In this way, chiropractic care shouldn’t be conceived of as a treatment. It’s an important therapy that frees your body to take better care of itself. Too often we overlook the body’s innate ability to heal. When our bodies aren’t functioning optimally or healing properly, we see the symptoms rather than the cause. Chiropractic isn’t just treating your symptoms –it’s adjusting your body’s natural systems and structures so they can do their job.

To learn more about your central nervous system and how chiropractic can benefit you, book an appointment with Dr. Jennifer Wise!

It’s overwhelming caring for a new baby, particularly with so much advice about the best health practices for newborns and infants. One of the reasons we advocate for infant chiropractic is its offer of a gentle preventative care that helps at reducing and improving such a wide range of common infant health problems. Rather than offering up another trick or treatment for a specific infant health concern, chiropractic can be a smart way to support overall development and health in your baby. Here are some of the major benefits of chiropractic care for infants and children.

Optimizing the Nervous System
It’s no secret that the importance of chiropractic has much to do with the nervous system. When the nervous system isn’t in optimal condition, its communication channels break down, affecting the health of various areas of the body. The same is true for babies- as they develop, the health of their nervous systems is critical. When the nervous system isn’t able to command the body properly, that biological communication-breakdown can result in a number of symptoms that are common in babies: colic, fussiness, poor sleep habits and difficulty breastfeeding to name a few.

Alleviating Nerve Irritation
We tend to think that babies and children are free of nerve and muscle irritation, but this isn’t always the case. Sure, many lifestyle factors accounting for nerve irritation don’t affect babies (like stress, bad posture and poor ergonomics), but emotional stressors, difficult births and use of forceps during delivery can all affect an infant’s nerves too. In fact, some studies suggest that there’s potential for nerve irritation to the baby while still in the uterus, as a result of problematic movement and positioning.

Fostering Cranial and Spinal Development
Many babies experience cranial trauma during birth as well. As a result, chiropractic care in early infancy is important to gently encourage proper growth following the physical impact of birth, and to foster healthy spinal and cranial development. Another important consideration: during the first year of your child’s life, the spine is developing faster than at any other life stage, as it shapes and lengthens by 50 percent. It’s best to make sure that your child’s spine is properly aligned and prepared for this major growth spurt.

Many parents recognize early infancy as a critically important time for a child’s development. Chiropractic care can offer a gentle, effective course of treatments to best support babies’ healthy growth by both targeting specific symptoms and optimizing overall health. For more information from Dr. Jennifer Wise about chiropractic for infants and children, check out her article on TogetherMoms.ca here.

There are many seemingly insignificant, overlooked lifestyle factors that can affect your alignment and physiological wellness. We’ve already mentioned the potential outcomes of practicing poor pillow posture, but what about poor purse posture?

Many of us are guilty of it: we wear a purse, bag or computer case without giving proper consideration to its weight and positioning on the body. Over time, an overpacked bag can affect your gait, posture and comfort. A heavy purse could also be the root cause of ongoing unidentified neck and shoulder pain.

This helpful article from Prevention.com offers some advice about what your purse could be doing for your posture and muscle health- and how you can correct it. Read on for some simple strategies to avoid shoulder bag strain.

1. Switch sides: Chances are you habitually sling your purse over the same arm (likely your dominant side). This is part of the problem- by only wearing your purse on one shoulder, you’re constantly overworking those muscles. Depending on how heavy your bag is, you’re also forcing one side of your upper body to be the load-bearing side, which can affect your gait and mobility.

2. Avoid the crook of your arm: You’ve probably done this one too –stuck your purse strap right in the inside of your elbow. This can cause injury, including tendonitis. It also forces you to hold your arm at a right angle, resulting in more muscle strain and poor circulation.

For more information check out this article: “Are you hurting your health in the name of fashion?” http://ow.ly/lr8UW

3. Wear your strap diagonally. Rather than pulling your laptop carrier, bag or purse over one arm, pull it over your head so that the strap is stretched diagonally across your chest. This will distribute the weight of the bag more effectively and result in less of a heavy downward pull on one side- sparing your shoulder and lower back and engaging more of your torso muscles instead.

4. Choose an appropriate carrier or bag. This is an important consideration we’d add to the list. Consider what accessory might better suit you and save you from neck, shoulder and back strain. If you have a lot to pack for a walk to the gym, try a backpack and be sure to wear both straps. For your computer, consider a briefcase or bag on wheels. For an evening out, swap your carry-all for a small clutch.

5. Lighten your load! The last and most obvious solution we offer is to simply take stock of your purse before leaving the house- particularly if you plan to be walking with it for any extended period of time. What can you reasonably leave behind? Remove spare change and roll it at home to exchange for bills. Take out chargers, extra keys and any other heavy objects that you can do without for a few hours. And every few days clean out your purse – you’d be surprised at how much weight accumulates from simple garbage, junk and forgotten items that could be left at home.

When people experience pain and discomfort, they will often first assume a muscle-related problem such as strain, tightness or micro-tears is responsible. As the Chiropractic Blog points out however, soreness and numbness are also often caused by a nerve-related problem. Without a proper diagnosis and treatment from a chiropractor, the root cause of your pain can go overlooked.

You’re most likely experiencing trapped or pinched nerve fibres. This is one of the most common nerve-related conditions that clients present with. Essentially a nerve in the spine becomes compressed between two bones or discs, resulting in the pinched, tingling or numb sensation you may be familiar with. A chiropractor will locate the trapped nerve and make careful manual adjustments to ease the pressure, realign the discs and free the nerve.

Another common condition is a trapped nerve. This occurs when a nerve has adhered itself to surrounding soft tissue, likely as the result of a certain repetitive movement. The motion causes friction between the nerve and nearby muscles or ligaments, creating sticky scar tissue. Consistent muscle contractions can also deprive the nerve of oxygen.

Although this could be taking place in your own body for a long time, you might not notice symptoms until the condition has worsened significantly. At the onset of symptoms you don’t want to further delay treatment by mistaking the problem for something else- so don’t assume anything. It’s always best to see a specialized practitioner who can properly identify whether your pain can be traced to a muscle problem, a pinched or trapped nerve, or both.

Your chiropractor will use gentle chiropractic adjustments to restore motion to the joints, which will relieve pressure from the nerves and allow muscles to function more effectively and without nerve-related discomfort. It may take several treatments to fully treat the problem, to eliminate pain, and to regain full mobility. Since the site of a compressed nerve is often very sensitive, a chiropractic treatment may be slightly uncomfortable at first. Your practitioner will be gentle however, and you’ll soon find that accurately diagnosing and treating the problem site results in major pain relief.

Regardless of whether you have a muscle or nerve problem, it’s important that you seek the right treatment to see lasting results and avoid long-term adverse effects.

People often make reference to their sleeping habits as the culprit for different aches, pains and ailments. Whether it’s a stiff neck, a headache, or back pain, chances are you’ve heard people chalk up various discomforts with a vague, “Oh I must have slept funny.”

So how much truth is there to this widely used explanation? Can the way we sleep noticeably impact our comfort and alignment? And what can we be doing to avoid the pains of “funny” sleeping?

Dr. Adam Tanase, a U.S-based chiropractor and blogger offers some answers. We liked his blog post “How’s Your Pillow Posture?” which does a great job of outlining some of the consequences of poor sleep posture for your spine. The questions addressed in his article are commonly asked by chiropractic patients who suffer chronic back and neck pain. So take note, and if you’re experiencing consistent discomfort when you wake up, consider adjusting your sleep posture.

How many pillows should I sleep on? The number of pillows isn’t as important as the alignment of your body. Dr. Tanase is right to emphasize the importance of sleeping with your forehead, nose and chin lined up with your spine. Need a visual? He provides a helpful link here. Usually the optimal neck angle (which is none at all) can be achieved with a single thick pillow.

What’s the best sleep position? Similar to his pillow guidelines, Dr. Tanase stresses the importance of sleeping in a position that supports a straight and balanced spine. Sleeping on your stomach is the worst choice, as it puts stress on the supportive structures of the spine, and forces you to twist your head at an extreme angle in order to sleep and breathe freely.

If you can help it, opt to sleep on your side or your back instead and remember to keep your body as straight as possible.

What damage can I do to my back by sleeping incorrectly? Poor sleep posture can worsen existing irritations and misalignments and can produce noticeable damage over time. Some of the conditions you might suffer include muscle spasm, postural distortion and thinning of your vertebral discs. The side effects will be chronic pain in the back, neck and arms. That sounds like a pretty good reason to adjust your posture to us!

On a grim note, Dr. Tanase reminds us these types of spinal decay are irreversible- so don’t delay. Take sleep posture as seriously as you do office ergonomics- just think of how many hours a week you spend positioned for sleep. This gives you an indication of how seriously sleep posture can impact your chiropractic health.

Improving your posture and office ergonomics isn’t difficult. With a few minor adjustments and daily habits, you can prevent regular, ongoing mild to severe back pain and muscle strain. Since these are such seemingly minor tweaks to our routine though, often we underestimate their significance and the positive effect they can have on our health. Dr. Sara Solomon’s blog does a good job of quickly summarizing the importance of making posture a priority in the workplace, emphasizing that when sitting at a desk for several hours a day, you should pay special attention to your lumbar lordosis.

Your what?

Lumbar lordosis is a fancy word for the small of your back. You may have heard the term “lumbar support” before, particularly when shopping for a desk chair. Your lumbar lordosis naturally curves inward, unless you’re sitting and slouched forward –in which case that curve is lost. As Dr. Solomon advises, it’s important that you sit up straight to maintain the curve of your lumbar lordosis and avoid lower back pain. Supporting your lower back with the right chair or pillow can help you stay upright and comfortable without much conscious effort.

When we slouch –especially for long, uninterrupted work days- it increases the work that our muscles are doing while we’re relatively immobile. Slouching puts a much higher strain on the joints, discs and muscles of the upper body. So when you pull your shoulders forward and move away from the upright support that the lumbar lordosis requires, remember that those lower back muscles are using up more energy to take on the work of supporting themselves. In other words: sore muscles aren’t only a pain; they’re also a drain on your much-needed energy supply.

Here’s what you can do to support your lumbar lordosis and avoid lower back pain.

Check out Dr. Solomon’s posture correction guideline.

Adjust your backrest so that it cradles your lower back.

Purchase a lumbar roll or use a rolled towel to offer additional support.

Exercise your core to strengthen the muscles of your back.

Stretch muscles that get tight, cramped or sore throughout the day.

Have a chiropractic assessment to ensure that there are no mechanical issues with your spine that may be contributing to poor posture.

As we always advise, remember to take frequent short breaks to stand up, stretch and move around. When you pair poor posture with immobility you’re almost guaranteeing yourself back pain. With these small changes implemented in your daily work life, you can keep yourself upright, supported and content. And remember- a more comfortable employee is a more productive one!